Note lengths and note velocities are very important ingredients to make a pattern groove nicely. Unfortunately, my 8-voice polyphonic pattern arpeggiator couldn't offer this feature. The DIY voice allocation scheme requires voices being driven by a keyboard scanning circuit residing in the FX area, which means using the interslot busses. And there is no way to pipe 8 keyboard gates and 8 velocity values through 4 busses. (Or actually, yes, there actually would be Either with multiplexing or bit-encoding, but all of this would be just too DSP-costly. )

So here's a monophonic pattern arpeggiator which has these features. For each step, it lets you define the note that shall play (of the ones you are depressing), with a definable velocity and note length. Think of it more like a "performable" step sequencer, where the the note pitches aren't defined by absolute values in a sequencer row, but rather that the values (numbers) in the sequencer row refer to the individual keys you are currently playing on the keyboard, sorted either from the bottom up or top-down.

Fun? Sure.

Parameter description:
VOICE ALLOCATION: defines how the keys you are playing are interpreted. "down>up" means that the lowest note you play has the number 0, "up>down" means that the highest note is note number 0. (The note numbers are the ones you can sequence)
MIDI CONTROL: Sets the channel/slot which the arpeggiator shall control.
MIDI CLOCK: As usual. (Notice that there unfortunately is no "swing" feature implemented. Somehow I just couldn't get it to work, as there seem to be little delays in the ouptuts of the sequencers and stuff, which botches up things. I got fed up trying to hunt down Clavias goof-ups. I might add it later.)
NOTE NR./ACTIVE: 16 steps. The values select the notes you are playing on the keyboard. 0 is either highest or lowest note (depending on voice allocation, see above), then 1, 2, 3... etc. are the consecutive ones. The on/off buttons underneath activate/deactivate the step.
VELOCITY/ACCENT: 16 steps of velocity values for the notes. The on/off buttons underneath acts as an "accent" switch, overriding the set velocity and playing the note with maximum velocity.
LENGTH/LEGATO: 16 steps of note lengths, with 64 equalling full legato. The on/off buttons unterneath override the set lengths and play the note with full legato.

Two adjacent steps containing the same note number can be bound together with full legato (the note will not retrigger).
The higher the voice count, the more keys can be recognized. I've set it to 10 for ten fingers. You can open it up to 32 if you want. Be careful when playing with a sustain pedal. If you play the same note twice with sustain on, this causes two voices being assigned to the same note, resulting in the pattern not playing as it should. I always use the "hold" button to nicely and safely segue from chord to chord.

There's an mp3 of me noodling around some simple chords, adding note for note so you can hear how the pattern becomes more complex. Layered with tasteless pads and some weird drum patch I found somewhere. (Don't remember who patched that one -but whoever you are, thanks to you.) It's all straight out of the box, no overdubbing

There's an mp3 of me noodling around some simple chords, adding note for note so you can hear how the pattern becomes more complex. Layered with tasteless pads and some weird drum patch I found somewhere. (Don't remember who patched that one -but whoever you are, thanks to you.) It's all straight out of the box, no overdubbing

Addressing individual voices in the VA area via counter/multiplexing-routines the FX area is giving me a whole set of weird new patching ideas. Like 6 voices of "virtual sampler" from just one delay line residing in the FX area. There might also be a possible new spin on the granular thing. If only the 24 sample interslot-bus latency wouldn't be. But we'll see. I have to get a few hours of piano practice down first though.

Addressing individual voices in the VA area via counter/multiplexing-routines the FX area is giving me a whole set of weird new patching ideas. Like 6 voices of "virtual sampler" from just one delay line residing in the FX area. There might also be a possible new spin on the granular thing.

hmm.. Cool, keep em coming, still not had chance to take a look at either of them yet though. Your description sounds like something I want to get my head around when I do. But if I understand your posts correctly, I take it you have managed to make the FX area somehow sort out the lack of voice allocation. I really need to take a look when I get a minute._________________iP (Ross)
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But if I understand your posts correctly, I take it you have managed to make the FX area somehow sort out the lack of voice allocation. I really need to take a look when I get a minute.

Well, what I do is I scan the key numbers with a counter circuit in the FX area which sweeps from -63 to +64 (or vice versa). I pipe that pointer back to the VA-area via interslot, and let any voice holler when that pointer matches the note number of that voice. If the keyboard gate of the voice happens to be on as well, that voice gets a number assigned from a second counter in the FX area (also piped via interslot bus) and tells that counter to advance one step (via FX bus). The result is that all played keys get numbered from bottom up (or top down, if you scan the keyboard the other way). One of those voices can now be "played" by any kind of scheme, sending the assigned key number (not the MIDI note number) and a velocity value via the 3rd and 4th interslot bus.

Many other whacky schemes are also possible, eg. sweeping the played notes with an LFO which oscillates from zero to the amount of notes played (this value is known due to the second counter, just need to S/H it), or with envelopes, whatever.

DIY arpeggiators at last! Hope other folks come up with their own inventions. I'll post the technique as a building block, so everybody can have a go.

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